The Information Commons: Blockchain Based Information Networks for Shared Social and Economic Value

Information is a force multiplier that reduces uncertainty when making decisions, individually and collectively. When we can share it well, it underpins social and economic life by facilitating coordination, cooperation, and innovation. In this thesis I ask how we can improve information sharing across digital networks and large-scale communities. The digital revolution was a data plasticity, computation, and communications revolution; it didn't bring about an information-sharing revolution. It increased the power of intermediaries and made them more in control of social and economic life, which is now primarily conducted on very few centrally controlled platforms. How can we transition a digital revolution into a revolution that unlocks the true potential for information-sharing? I begin by noting that we were successful information sharers before the digital age and asking what we learn from our deep history of information sharing. I first develop a theory of information, focusing on the determinants of epistemic value of information as a decision-making asset that can be used across distributed networks. I then examine the history of information sharing, focusing on the reliability of information amongst sometimes uncooperative agents. I go on to apply pointers extracted from these first two sections to how we might better manage the epistemic value of informational assets and provide determinants for improved reliability and value of information when shared to do social and economic work. The findings suggest how to build a more high-value, safer and reliable information-sharing network as a public goods infrastructure and who should own this. Sharing information requires more than merely moving data around. It requires a socio-technical architecture and agreements as the foundational network that preserves property rights via the preservation of agency that is intrinsic to the network itself. Blockchain and related web 3.0 technology is beginning to provide this. Sharing information also requires that we standardise and “containerise” information assets that traverse this network to allow control of the social, economic, and epistemic value of information so that it can be reused in contexts far removed from whence it originated. Together, these provide the necessary information sharing networks as a public goods infrastructure. Since information sharing is the foundation for social and economic life, and we are uploading this into the digital sphere, getting this and who owns our information-sharing rails right, matters to just about everything.

Name thesis:degree_name

PhD

Level thesis:degree_level

Doctoral

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Philosophy

Grantor dc:publisher

ResearchSpace@Auckland

Year dc:date.issued

2024

Author dc:creator

• Mansell, James Hurst

Advisors dc:contributor.advisor

• Dare, Tim
• Parke, Emily
• Scott, Graham

• Information Theory
• Biological Networks
• Blockchain
• Digital Public Goods
• Institutional Economics
• Information In Biology
• Digital Revolution
• Artificial Intelligence

Statement dc:rights

• Items in ResearchSpace are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• https://researchspace.auckland.ac.nz/docs/uoa-docs/rights.htm

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/2292/73605

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:researchspace.auckland.ac.nz:2292/73605